Defendant believed Ahmaud Arbery was ‘wanting to flee’ and not out jogging
One of the three white men standing trial for killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia last year told the police that they chased the 25-year-old Black man because they were convinced he was running away from a potential crime and not out jogging, a court heard on Wednesday.
Father and son defendants, Greg and Travis McMichael, armed themselves and chased Arbery in a pickup truck after they spotted him running in their coastal south-east Georgia area of Brunswick on 23 February 2020.
A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the pursuit in his own truck and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range with a shotgun, the jury in the closely watched trial heard.
Greg McMichael later told the police that in his view Arbery “wasn’t out for no Sunday jog. He was getting the hell out of there.”
He said they closed in on Arbery in their two vehicles and finally had him in a situation where “he was trapped like a rat”, a police investigator testified on Wednesday.
More than two months passed before the three men were arrested on charges of murder and other crimes, after the graphic video leaked online and deepened a national reckoning over racial injustice.
Glynn county police sergeant Roderic Nohilly told the jury he spoke with Greg McMichael at police headquarters a few hours after the shooting, where he explained why they chased Arbery and what happened.
Greg McMichael told Nohilly he recognized Arbery because he had been recorded by security cameras a few times inside a neighboring house that was under construction, the court heard.
Greg McMichael said they gave chase to try to stop Arbery from escaping the mostly white residential subdivision.
According to a transcript of their recorded interview Nohilly read in court, McMichael said: “I think he was wanting to flee and he realized that something, you know, he was not going to get away.”
Defense attorneys say the McMichaels and Bryan were legally justified in chasing and trying to detain Arbery because they reasonably thought he was a burglar.
Greg McMichael told police Travis McMichael fired in self-defense after Arbery attacked with his fists and tried to grab his son’s shotgun.
“He had an opportunity to flee further you know,” Greg McMichael told Nohilly. “We had chased him around the neighborhood a bit, but he wasn’t winded at all. I mean this guy was, he was in good shape.”
Prosecutors say the McMichaels and Bryan chased Arbery for five minutes before he was shot in the street after running past the McMichaels’ idling truck.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski has described Arbery as an “avid runner” who lived about 2 miles from the Satilla Shores neighborhood where he often went jogging, and was slain.
The first police officer on the scene, Ricky Minshew, testified earlier in the trial that Bryan told him Arbery at one point in the chase stopped to catch his breath and appeared to be “tired of running”.
The prominent New York civil rights campaigner Al Sharpton spoke with reporters Wednesday outside the Glynn county courthouse, where he held the hands of Arbery’s parents while leading a prayer for justice.
Sharpton criticized the disproportionately white makeup of the jury, which includes only one Black member, whereas the county where the trial is being held is nearly 27% Black.
“It’s an insult to the intelligence of the American people,” Sharpton said. “If you can count to 12 and only get to one that’s Black, you know something’s wrong.”
In court, Matthew Albenze testified he was splitting logs in his front yard on the day of the shooting when he saw Arbery enter the house under construction across the street.
Albenze testified Wednesday that he fetched a gun himself before he called police from behind a tree. Arbery left the house running in the direction of the McMichaels’ home.
Albenze told the jury he called the police non-emergency number. Dunikoski asked him: Why not [the emergency number] 911?
He replied: “I did not see an emergency.”
The defendants have pleaded not guilty. The trial continues.
